Kindness goes a long way.

Today, I have learned there are some really great people in the world.

Today I was talking to my friend (Lets call him....Garrett for privacy sake). He works as a barista in Starbucks, conveniently this is also in my workplace. Garrett hadn't known that I had lost my sweet dog Missy and I have known him since my sophomore year of High school. So he is a really great friend to me. Of course I have the "I'm sorry" and I just say "I'll power through it."

Well a woman had overheard the conversation and asked why she wasn't cremated. I said I had to pay bills before I could bring Missy to her resting place.

I start working and my fourth customer comes and she hands me what looks like a brown envelope, however I see the "STARBUCKS" on the outside of it in shiny gold foil.

Thanks to my store Policy, I had to decline her three times before I took it. My co-worker said "We will just act like you refused three times. The woman left telling me to have a better week and that the card made my week a little better.

Honestly, it did It made me feel so much better. What most people don't realize is that if you are still in the store you can get a refill on a tea or a drip coffee. Well I drink a lot. I am constantly talking all of the time and my throat gets dry and hurts. Granted I could get water for free, but honestly, I need something that will also calm my headaches, and give me that "Southern Comfort" I am looking for.

It made me happy, it was unexpected and honestly that card will last me two three weeks. It really warmed my heart because she wasn't seeing me as an employee of a grocery store, she was seeing me as a person who really needed a pick me up, who needed to see a little light in a, currently, dark world.

Honestly it did make my day and it really made my week. If I could find that woman again I would give her a hug and say thank you all over again. Her kindness gave me a little bit of light in a dark whirlwind of pain and hurt. Now I am not saying to give everyone in a really bad mood $15. No I think the whole world would be broke. Just do something nice for them, wait a little longer, give them a smile. flowers are nice if you can afford them. If you live at home with them, do some chores around the house, clean. I know that they will appreciate it.

So remember, kindness does go along way. It could help someone in dark times. Or make them even happier than they were before.

So lets Kick back and Relax, and drink some sweet tea.

Money Problems SUCK!

We have all been in a very tricky situation with money, like it or not. We can't seem to pay a bill or we hold off on the one we have until next month. If you don't have enough money, you realize what I am talking about!

I am the caretaker in my home. My mom can't work because she is disabled and my little sister is too young to get a job. With my Moms Disability, I am the one who has to pay most if not all of the bills. after she pays the rent. It is hard to be the only one working. What sucks even more is that I am a 20 year old, by now I should have been out on my own in my own apartment. Heck I know an 18 year old who lives with a room mate!

No matter what I love my Mom, and I forever will. My mom isn't the problem though. Even though I save money throughout the month and get paid every week, I still can't pay the bills. I make above Federal Minimum Wage at 8.23 an hour, but if you look around where I live you can see that a house is 300,000 dollars, and that is for a two bedroom home that would need a lot of work. My apartment is expensive and I am on the lower end in a place where you pick yourself up.

When you are taking care of three people including yourself, and have to pay for everything, it is tough. Especially when you work 40 hours a week and have no social life.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that we should raise Minimum wage, I just think that my store that makes over 1.2 million dollars A WEEK should raise their pay. But because of some Money grabbing big wigs in corporate that will never happen unless someone speaks up to them and frankly, I am a bit out of my league on that. I don't have a college degree in business, but i would make sure that my employees (No matter what rank they are in the company) has the means to pay their bills and maybe get something nice once in awhile or has some emergency cash on the side (I don't and that is really bad!)

So if any "Big Wigs" or CEO's see this, this is how someone in your stores feel. We work our butts off to stress at home if we can buy Groceries or if we can pay our electric bill. While you have it nice and easy making millions by the second, people are working so hard they could collapse at any moment.

SO, let's kick back and try to relax with our sweet tea.

Don't be Scammed!

As a Service Desk Clerk, I am to go to a class every year for titled "Anti Money Laundering." Believe it or not, it wasn't that boring of a meeting, it was actually fun. Some of it was just review from my training, but something really concerned me. Scams.

There are all different kinds of scams, some most people can see coming. Others though not so much.With Facebook a big part of our lives, we don't really realize how much of ourselves we put on there. If you looked at my profile you would see my picture, my birth date, Where I was born, where I live now where I work and what college I go to. That is all without even scrolling down or clicking on a new tab. Just imagine what you could get on me if you spent a little time trying to get my information. It is scary.

So here is a scenario for you.

You get a call from a man saying that your family member is in Jail and that they are too embarrassed to tell you. You obviously want them out of jail (Unless you are my mother and would just let me sit there and think about what I have done.) You ask them where to send the money and they give you the name, the state and the amount of bail money which goes into the thousands. You quickly find a Western Union or Money Gram supporting business (i.e. Walmart, Kroger, Trader Joes, Costco). You send the money. You think everything will be okay.

Later that night you call your family member. Turns out that they were NEVER even in jail they had the flu and stayed home all day long in there bed.

Congrats you are now a victim of a scam.

Here is another scenario for you.

You receive a letter in the mail after you have come back from a foreign country. You open it to see that you have won a Lottery Prize in that country. However there is a catch, you have to send them money to get your winnings. You call the number on the letter and they tell you how much you need to send, they don't want you to go to a Money Transfer Service and they want a "Green Dot Money Pack" and for you to send them that instead. You agree and send them it. Weeks go on, and yet no prize.

Congrats you have been scammed. You are out the money and the 49 cents that you had to pay for the stamp.

So remember if anything seems suspicious call your family member, if it is a lottery rip the paper up, if you are contacted by the "Police" of "Hospital staff" do some digging around. DO NOT JUST ASSUME EVERYTHING YOU ARE BEING TOLD IS TRUE!!!

Alright So as we think about this, let's just grab a sweet tea, sit back and relax.

Think Before You Do Something

I work at a grocery store. I know what you are thinking. Why on earth would she start off with that? Well the fact is, I do. I work at the service desk of a grocery store. No it isn't Walmart. It isn't the greatest job, heck I thought it was just going to be a pit stop in my life. What really gets on our nerves in my position is that, there will only be one person at the desk for thirty minuets to an hour.

This was the case today. I was all alone and we have a toll road. You get a sticker, fill out some information, and TAH-DAH you are on your way once we have faxed the application to the company (Cool for the customers, bad news for the employees who have to use the ancient fax machine that won't send most of the time).

Just as I was helping the customer get the fax and making sure it sent, a random woman comes up and is livid. She says to me "Can you get someone else back here? These people have been sitting here for the past ten minuets." It was not that long that they were waiting there. It took maybe five minuets to explain the application to the customer and getting it sent. They were there for no more than three minuets. I looked around, obviously I was the only person working and my customer had many questions about the application. I wasn't just going to say "Sorry sir you are on your own from here" and help the other customers. I would be pretty mad if someone did that to me.

It being my luck, my co worker had just gone to lunch to abide by state law and my bosses were busy with bagging and making sure that other people had breaks, and lunches. I calmly say "I can try, I am all alone until my co worker comes back." She didn't like my answer. Now it would have taken almost three minuets to get the fax through and I can hear the old DSL sound when your mom wanted to use the phone but you were on the computer using the internet (90's Kids you know what I am talking about).

I finally get one of my bosses to help me (Which is rare with the rush we had), the random woman who had yelled at me, hadn't even needed help. No she bolted once my boss was there. Honestly, I didn't need her attitude. Since I had just put my dog, that I had for half of my life, down no more than five days ago. It was already hard to come to work, I didn't need a person yelling at me because I was being courteous to another customer.

So just remember the next time you get impatient in a line at a grocery store, some of us are having a really bad week and we are human too, we can only move so fast and believe it or not, we have emotions, we have a soul. Also remember the kindergarten "Golden Rule" Treat People how you want to be treated. So if you don't want to be yelled at because I finally snapped after all of the stress, don't yell at me (No I didn't yell at the woman, I haven't snapped yet.)

Alright while all of us think back on this lets all just grab a sweet tea, and sit back and relax.